IT was a difficult decision for Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes and the rest of the staff to choose the Final 12 for the Fiba Basketball World Cup.
“Very, very difficult. I’d like to call it ‘the deepest cut,’” said Reyes during the team introduction press conference on Thursday on the eve of the Basketball World Cup.
See What do you think of this Gilas 12 for the Fiba World Cup?
Reyes confirmed that Chris Newsome, Thirdy Ravena, Bobby Ray Parks, and Calvin Oftana were the final cuts of Gilas Pilipinas following a three-month build-up.
The final 12 is composed of Jordan Clarkson, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Roger Pogoy, Dwight Ramos, Kiefer Ravena, Jamie Malonzo, Kai Sotto, Japeth Aguilar, Rhenz Abando, AJ Edu, and CJ Perez.
The Gilas mentor said Newsome, Ravena, Parks, and Oftana were informed that they are going to be left out of the final 12 on Monday. They were also told at the same time, making sure that the coaching staff were the ones to break the news first.
“Really difficult. Some guys, we had to cut who were there from Day One… Three days ago, I was very subdued after practice because I told them that the coaching staff is about to make a tough decision. But it falls on me to deliver the news,” said Reyes.
“The way I like to do is to call the players themselves. That’s my commitment to the players. They are not going to find out about in social media, from any other person but from me personally. I talked to Thirdy personally. I made the call myself to Ray Parks. Calvin and to Chris, I called them at the same time,” said Reyes.
See Chris Newsome still showing up at Gilas practice
Reyes also said all players maintained their commitment to Gilas Pilipinas.
“The reason Chris is with us is because Thirdy and Ray had to report back already to Japan to their teams. Calvin had to go back to Dumaguete to be with his family, with his baby. They would have been here with us,” said Reyes.
“Like I told them, it’s not because of anything they did wrong or deficiency on their part. It’s just that we had to make a choice. In the end, we had 16 guys and we can only choose 12. And then for me, that is really a coach’s most difficult job.”
“Sana kung if they were doing something bad or wrong or they were just really bad for the team. But not. They are all doing everything that we asked. But we just have to make a decision,” said Reyes.
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